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Transformers: Age of Extinction
Age of Extinction, while a better effort then the past films, still doesn't take enough advantage of excellent source material and it's far too long and bloated to boot. Me Grimlock no bozo! Sure it's a big, dumb, action movie but does it really have to be dumb? Part of the franchise's beauty is how even with a talented writer at the helm and the subject matter dark/serious, the fact that they are giant alien robots capable of changing form at will always paves way for those wonderous action scenes anyway. There is no excuse for the bad scripts of the films. Plot, tell it! That being said Age of Extinction still managed to best all of its predesessors. The annoying Michael Bayisms are far less present here, the story actually can engage and has some interesting ideas despite those ideas eventually getting drowned out in its near non-stop action and near three-hour run time. Optimus actually has more of a sense of character and even goes through growth throughout the narrative, and the supporting cast of Autobots at least have slightly more pronounced personalities then the ones from the previous film. (That being said I still hate the very concept of Drift and don't understand why anyone over the age of 5 would find the character "awesome") Lockdown made for a far more interesting villian then Megatron or the Fallen managed to be, although admittedly falls short of Sentinal from the last film. The mystery around the Cybertronian's apparent creators is also intriguing. Also once again, the human characters are no where near as annoying, but that's like praising Episode II for having less Jar Jar Binks. The Perfect Organisms I completely agree with the Dinobots placement, their executions are fine if you really must insist on making them even more stupid then they were and literally removing their characters completely. (none of them are even referred to by name) Fall of Cybertron did the same thing, saved the Dinobots for one last epic moment before the story's actual climax. The thing that's different here is that in Fall they had character, back story, and clear motivation that not only made you feel awesome because of their presense, but made you root for them and want them to get out of their situation alive. Anyway, that aside for what they were, big stupid gimmicks for some cool scenes that they could also use to sell toys afterword, they work, or would work if... Could you calm down for a sec? Jeez. The problem isn't with the Dinobots' placement, the problem is with the film's running time. IT'S TOO D*** LONG. Now don't get me wrong, I'm fine with a lengthy film, I've sat through Titanic in theaters which was longer and had no issue, I liked the idea of a Transformers epic. The problem is pacing, as in there is none. It starts up with nothing going on for the longest time, but then the remaining two hours of the film is almost non-stop all-out action. It gets to the point where I simply became desensitized, the action became white noise as the only thing that continued to engage me was the story. I actually had to think back to the Dinobot scenes on the drive home only then to realize "Wow, some of those shots were really awesome." The issue wasn't the running time, the issue was the lack of restraint. That's what killed it. The final showdown with Lockdown? One of the most anti-climactic fights I've seen in a movie like this. Conclusion Pros *Better writing *Optimus actually goes through character growth *Supporting characters have slightly more personality *Good ideas *Dinobots *Good action scenes as usual *No Skids *No Mudflap *No Megan Fox *No enemy scrotum Cons *Too long *Seriously, too much action. You know it's bad when this is a con to a Transformers film. *Other than Optimus nothing much actually happens with the characters *Just in general, where are the personalities? Why is the live-action film coming off more as just a commercial for toys then the actual cartoon commercials for toys!? *Where are the memorable character moments? What were the highlights other than the action? Final Recommendation A mixed bag of good and bad, ultimately though it's what you expect, a stupid, dumb, action flick with giant robots. If that makes you happy go ahead and enjoy, I won't stop you, I even enjoyed it a bit myself. But as awesome as a Theater experience may sound, you might actually want to wait for the Blu-Ray release. The ability to pause and take a break could really help this film.Category:2014 Reviews